Problems booting up Kubuntu 9.10

[tlinux]

I have Kubuntu 9.10 installed in a Dell notebook. It is not a dual boot setup. It worked fine for a few weeks and now it doesn't boot up properly. If I just push the power button it will try to start and then shut down. If I push the power button and hold it down, the Dell startup page appears and loads something, then I get a blank screen except for a blinking cursor. However, If I push the power button and hold it down and simultaneously push the F12 key, it will go into the setup mode. Then I can select "Boot from HHD" and Kubuntu will load and run properly.

What can be done to solve this problem? I'd hate to have to reinstall Kubuntu because I've spent lots of time getting it set up as I want it, but if I have to I have to.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[dibl]

Re: Problems booting up Kubuntu 9.10

That sounds more like a hardware problem than a Kubuntu problem. At the point in time when the system should be attempting to boot the hard drive, there's no Grub or Linux running yet. It is reminiscent of the old "slow spinup" problem that can affect aging hard drives -- when the BIOS first looks for a boot sector, it's not spinning fast enough to be read, but if you can delay the process (perhaps by holding the power button down), then in a second or two the hard drive is up to speed and the boot proceeds normally.

I would say run some hard drive diagnostics on it.

[tlinux]

Re: Problems booting up Kubuntu 9.10

I contacted Dell. There's a hardware diagnostics program in the setup option. This was run and it didn't find any hardware problems -- this included the hard drive.

[tlinux]

Re: Problems booting up Kubuntu 9.10

I still need some help on this problem. If it's a software problem, what can I do about it?

Thank you.

[devnulljp]

Re: Problems booting up Kubuntu 9.10

Any idea what your kernel is?
I've been having trouble getting my thinkpad to boot with 2.6.31-20 and now 2.6.31-21, both of which come in with updates.
Can you try booting and hitting ESC at the grub countdown then selecting an older kernel? Mine still works fine with 2.6.31-19, but shows similar symptoms to yours with 20 and 21.

Posted here

EDIT: Re-read your post and I think it's a different issue. Wrong boot partition maybe? Did you run the Dell diagnostic before the problem occurred?